With the interest recently in the drug ALD-52 on this group I
thought the following extract from 'The Brotherhood of Eternal Love'
by Stewart Tendler & David May, Panther Books, England 1984 might
be useful:
'Windsor [US lab] was not producing lSD but ALD-52, similar but
not illegal, or so [Tim] Scully believed. Scully found the ALD
formula among scientific papers and books in the specialist
library at Berkeley. It was a compound [Albert] Hofmann had tested
years before. At the University of California Medical Center(sic),
Scully uncovered the scientific paper Hofmann and a colleague had
published on the drug. From the US Patent Office he drew patent
number 2,810,723, lodged by Sandoz with production details. In The
Hallucinogens co-authored by Osmond and Hofmann, Scully discovered
a table comparing the effects of ALD and other drugs in the same
family.
The table suggested that ALD might actually have advantages over
LSD, reducing any side effects but achieving a stronger trip.
Measurements of brain waves while people were taking the two drugs
showed that while LSD produced brain waves associated with intense
concentration and anxiety, ALD produced brain waves showing a more
relaxed mental state.
There was one snag. Hofmann's formula meant making LSD first, then
converting it into ALD. Although the finished product might be legal
, at a crucial stage in its production it was illegal. The solution
was a simple reversal in the order of production so that at no time
was the drug illegal. Neither Hitchcock nor the Brothers were told
of ALD. Hitchcock had been badly burned financially when STP had
picked up a bad name on the streets. It was thought he would oppose
ALD as yet another innovation that would prove difficult to sell.
The drug was simply labelled 'acid', and he and the Brotherhood
were none the wiser.'
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ALD-52: N-Acetyl-LSD.
According to the _Psychedelics Encyclopedia_, ALD-52 is rather commonly
found on the street sold as LSD-25. However, it also claims that ALD-52
is actually a smoother trip than LSD. Either way, ALD-52 tends to
decompose into LSD-25 rather quickly, so I really doubt the quality is
changed that much.
And medium level dealers get whatever the hell the chemist makes. They're
just as confused as you are as to the content.